Russia uses five scenarios to abduct children from Ukraine

Ukraine is providing more and more evidence of the genocidal nature of the war waged by Russia. The forcible abduction of children, their forced assimilation in Russia, and their separation from their own culture, region, and people are manifestations of Russia’s heinous crimes.

The Russian army mostly uses five scenarios to transfer Ukrainian children to the territory of the Russian Federation.

This was stated by Daria Gerasymchuk, Ukrainian Presidential Advisor and Commissioner for Children’s Rights and Child Rehabilitation, in her speech at the United for Justice international conference held in Lviv, Ukraine, on March 5.

“Russians have a well-planned policy towards Ukrainian children. Their actions are not chaotic… They have at least five scenarios for abducting Ukrainian children,” she said.

It is known that children are transferred to the territory of the Russian Federation after the murder of their parents, after being separated from their parents during the so-called filtration, and taken from orphanages on the occupied territory. It is also noted that there were cases when children were taken from their families in the occupied territories under the guise of rehabilitation in children’s camps, Gerasymchuk said.

“Russians are doing absolutely everything to prevent a child from being reunited with his or her family. They immediately take away the children’s phones and do not allow them to report their whereabouts. It is very difficult to find a child. The Russians scatter Ukrainian children across their territory and constantly move them around. As soon as we find out something about the location of the children, they are moved to another part of Russia. That’s why we have returned only 307 children out of 16 thousand,” she said.

She also added that “it is necessary to respond quickly and effectively to the crime of genocide against Ukraine and Ukrainian children.”

“Our goal now is to immediately stop the forced displacement and deportation of children. This requires international assistance,” Gerasymchuk added.

Earlier, we reported on a completely unacceptable case of the abduction of Ukrainian children from Austria and their forced transfer to Russia. This once again showed Russia’s willingness to commit crimes anywhere, without any respect for borders or sovereignty.

Photo: A playhouse in the courtyard of Kherson regional children’s home in southern Ukraine in November, after the liberation of the territory from the Russian occupation (Bernat Armangue/AP).